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Friday, March 06, 2015

I had a few hours to kill in London and decided to visit the WOW (Women of the World 2015) festival at the Southbank Centre.
There is an amazing array of things happening that kick off in full on Friday 6th March.

But there were some already open exhibitions that sounded interesting.

I saw Radio 4 Women's Hour being recorded as I wandered in and down to the Claude Cahun 'beneath the mask' self portrait photography.

It was deep and to be honest I wanted to know more, ask questions, but there was no information at all. Which made it deeper.

I was completely alone in the far end of the building and at one point a suited staff member asked if I was ok, like they were surprised anyone was there looking at it!
As I came up some backstairs I saw this and stood looking through the glass. Thai instruments. I marvelled for a while, until the same suited man coming back in the other direction gave me the same odd look, so I moved on!!

Stefanic Posavec: Feminism through Data.

One screen, cleverly done and incredibly interesting. A number of topics about women, sex, power, money etc and countries mapped to years when rights were gained.

And lost.

It is easy to forget that the sands of time can erode what we take for granted.

'women's rights can be won - and lost again'

This one shocked me, I was married then. I don't recall this change happening.

'marriage is consent to sex' still applies in many countries.

Sara Shamsavari: London Veil

Vibrant photography - This one really sucked me in. Loved it.

Sheila Hicks : Foray into Chromatic Zones

(Also entitled (by me) coloured wool and crafts you have done yourself or your mother had on your wall at home in the 70s!)

However it did introduce me to the Concrete Bar and Cafe in the Hayward Gallery.

It really is like a boiler room with art in it. I assume these are art, arty people kept popping in to look at them!

There was a neon lit concrete mixer outside, so they had actually made it look like this as opposed to just dumping some tables and chairs in a boiler room I presume.

They did a superb stew and focaccia bread for £5.75, which I ate in the company of 'cool' people.

I very much liked it.

Even the toilets were cool, completely decorated in a sharpie hand drawn patterns. Someone had a lot of time or a very bad stomach.

If you do go to the Southbank Centre go in the singing lift, it made me laugh out loud. The 'cool' man I shared the lift with did not even smile, I thought that was very sad.

He got out, so I went up and down again, very uncooly.

Sorry to run with a toilet theme, but I liked this. I hate that having to hold your program in your teeth whilst you wee because you don't want to put it down anywhere but you can't hold it and, well, shuffle stuff around at the same time. Every theatre loo should have these, and a phone shelf.

If you find yourself on the Southbank then the centre (festival hall) is a great place to just take a break. There is a fab bar on the 4th floor where you can get a cup of tea and look at the view, there are clean loos and lots of sitty down places to just take a load off.